Joss Whedon Quotes

“Time for some thrillin' heroics.”

“I loved the idea of a girl going into a dark alley, and a monster comes, and then she just aces him. It’s like, you want to see the tiny person suddenly take control. God, my whole career is basically about that!”

“Humor keeps us alive. Humor and food. Don't forget food. You can go a week without laughing.”

“Time is what turns kittens into cats.”

“Captain, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.”

“You can't just throw people at all your problems, dear.”

“I'd rather make a show 100 people need to see, than a show that 1000 people want to see.”

“People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy.”

“You're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.”

“Don’t give people what they want, give them what they need.”

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of.”

“The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.”

“There's a time and place for everything, and I believe it’s called 'fan fiction'.”

“Very occasionally, if you really pay attention, life doesn’t suck.”

“Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”

“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW.”

“Recognizing power in another does not diminish your own.”

“Q: So, why do you write these strong female characters?
A: Because you’re still asking me that question.”

“I don't actually have anything against anybody, unless their belief precludes everybody else's.”

“I believe the only reality is how we treat each other.”

“I think that people need two kinds of fulfillment — one in which you give and one in which you hold back.”

“The first thing I ever thought of when I thought of Buffy, the movie, was the little…blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed, in every horror movie. The idea of Buffy was to subvert that idea, that image, and create someone who was a hero where she had always been a victim.”

“The idea of changing culture is important to me, and it can only be done in a popular medium.”

“I think there's a lot of people out there who say we must not have horror in any form, we must not say scary things to children because it will make them evil and disturbed… That offends me deeply, because the world is a scary and horrifying place, and everyone's going to get old and die, if they're that lucky. To set children up to think that everything is sunshine and roses is doing them a great disservice.”

“If you can't run, you crawl. If you can't crawl-- you find someone to carry you.”

“There’s a fine line between support and stalking and let’s all stay on the right side of that.”

“In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.”

“All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn't your pet — it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.”

“If you can't do something smart, do something right.”

“If you're going to make a science fiction movie, then have a hover craft chase, for God's sake.”

“Loneliness is about the scariest thing out there.”

“Faith in God means believing absolutely in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers.”

“Every day's a negotiation and sometimes it's done with guns.”

“You can't take the sky from me.”

“You either have to write or you shouldn't be writing. That's all.”

“Because it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself.”

“Two things that matter to me. Emotional resonance and rocket launchers.”

“That girl will rain destruction down on you and your ship. She is an albatross, Captain.

Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it. (to Inara) Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.”

“I cannot abide useless people.”

“Redemption is something you have to fight for in a very personal, down-dirty way. Some of our characters lose that, some stray from that, and some regain it.”

“Shiny, let's be bad guys!”

“He's like Super Librarian, y'know? Everyone forgets, Willow, that knowledge is the ultimate weapon.”

“The thing about changing the world… Once you do it, the world's all different.”

“If the apocalypse comes… beep me!”

“Come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. This job goes south, there well may not be another. So here is us, on the raggedy edge. Don’t push me, and I won’t push you. Dong le ma?”

“As we all know, blinking lights means science.”

“If I kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed.”

“It's not enough to bash in heads. You've got to bash in minds.”

“Everyone has their first date and the object is to hide your flaws. And then you're in a relationship, and it's all about hiding your disappointment. And then, once you're married, it's about hiding your sins.”

“The news isn't there to tell you what happened. It's there to tell you what it wants you to hear or what it thinks you want to hear.”

“Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous, green rage monster.”

“I also don't trust Caribou anymore. They're out there, on the tundra, waiting… Something's going down. I'm right about this.”

“Someone else's loss is my chocolatey goodness”

“If you think that happiness means total peace, you will never be happy. Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace. It will always be in conflict. If you accept that, everything gets a lot better.”

“Can't stop the signal”

“If every vampire who said he was at The Crucifixion, was actually there, it would have been like Woodstock…”

“It's about women. It's about power and it's about women and you just hate those two words in the same sentence, don't you?”

“Sadly, I hate foreigners. And Americans. And animals. And flora, and some fauna. Also the magma that is the very core of this our mother earth. I'm full o' hate!”

“War is not just the business of death, it is the antitheses of life.”

“I'm not big on regret. It's not on my schedule.”